Positive approach for bright future

Westbourne Grammar aims to engage completely with its new vision statement, "shaping learners who inspire the world". Principal Meg Hansen says: "They're not just sweet words written on paper – we are putting them into life."

The school is training staff in new approaches to learning that it believes will translate into children knowing they can learn, rather than thinking they can't do a particular thing.

Principal Meg Hansen, right, with head of senior school Louise Mahony and 2014 prefects.

"We want to encourage a growth mindset in our children and staff," says Ms Hansen, "and we have developed an extensive teacher toolkit to assist with this.

"That's coupled with the notion of mindfulness, which relates to how children think about themselves and the world. We're trying to teach them those simple skills of mindfulness because it fits so beautifully with the growth mindset in the classroom."

Westbourne Grammar operates from two campuses: Early Learning to Year 12 at Truganina and Prep to

Year 3 at Williamstown.

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Truganina Open Days are on Saturday, May 2 and Saturday, August 22, from 10am to 1pm. Junior School Tours are held on three Tuesdays during Terms 1, 2 and 3, and two Tuesdays in Term 4. One Year 9 Centre Tour is held each term on a Wednesday. Senior School Tours are held on three Wednesdays during Terms 1, 2 and 3, and two Wednesdays in Term 4. All tours start at 9.30am.

The first Open Morning at Williamstown is on Wednesday, March 4, 9.30-11am, and the second is on Saturday, August 1, 10am-12pm. Two Junior School Tours are held every Term on a Thursday at 9.30am.

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The school wants to provide prospective parents with as many opportunities to see the school during open hours as possible, because it's so large.

"On Open Days, the whole family can come including grandparents and close friends," says Ms Hansen. "For School Tours we prefer only parents and older children to attend."

Ms Hansen hopes that visitors get an understanding of how Westbourne approaches teaching and learning, and "get a strong sense of how we manage student wellbeing – and the kind of communication and reporting we have for parents.

"People get a strong sense of our children and how they behave within the school environment and how the community feels. We want them to pick up that we take teaching really seriously. Kids have a lot of fun, but it's also a place where we take learning seriously, the children do too, and they expect their peers to also," she says.

The school places great importance on children's physical, emotional and intellectual safety. "Parents want to know that the school recognises how important that is and 'yes', we have bullying and behavioural policies, but parents want to know exactly how we would address these issues and their questions can be answered easily and well," says Ms Hansen.

Although Westbourne might be seen as "conservative in the respectful behaviour we expect of our children and the approach they take to learning, we are conversely very contemporary and innovative in a lot of what we do," she says.